Hamas on Monday released 11 hostages from Gaza, including three French, two German and six Argentinian dual nationals, taking the total number of hostages released over the past four days to 50. In exchange, Israel released 33 Palestinian women and minors from Israeli jails, fulfilling the terms of the initial four-day truce deal. Following intense negotiations on Monday, Israel and Hamas agreed to a two-day truce extension. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, please click here.
Summary
- Israel and Hamas on Monday agreed to a two-day extension of the four-day truce agreed last week. The extension provides for the release of 20 hostages from Gaza in exchange for 60 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
- The Palestinian militant group on Monday released 11 hostages from Gaza, including three French, two German and six Argentinian dual nationals. Israel released 33 Palestinian women and minors from Israeli jails under the terms of a swap deal.
- French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday welcomed the release of the three French minors from Gaza.
- Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has made clear he intends to press ahead with the Gaza offensive after the ceasefire expires.
- A French warship arrived in Egypt near the border with Gaza to serve as a hospital for wounded civilians, a port source said Monday. The Dixmude ship is expected to accomodate two operating rooms and around 40 beds.
- Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages, according to the Israeli government.
- Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 14,500 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory assault on the Gaza Strip.
Key developments on Sunday, November 26
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Seventeen hostages and 39 Palestinians were released in a third round of hostage-for-prisoner swaps on day three of a fragile four-day truce between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
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The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced the death of their top commander in northern Gaza, Ahmed Al-Ghandour, the group's highest-ranking casualty of the war.
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The UN said 248 trucks carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid had entered the Gaza Strip since the start of the truce, adding that 61 trucks had reached the worst-hit northern part of the enclave on Saturday.
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Six Palestinians, including one minor, were shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank late Saturday and early Sunday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
For more, read yesterday's blog here.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”. The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
